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ELISHA PRATT, OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO E. PRATT AND H. P.UPTON, ASSIGNORS TO E. PRATT AND T. P. PINGREE.

LEATHER-SPLITTING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 14,430, dated March 11, 1856.

T0 all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, ELisHA PRATT, of Salem, in the county of Essex andState of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Machines for Splitting Leather, of which the followingis a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to theannexed drawings, making part of this specification, in whichd Fig. l,is a plan; Fig. 2, a vertical section upon the line A, A, of Fig. 1;Fig. 3, a section through the feed rolls, the upper one, or gage rollbeing swung out of its working position; Fig. 4, a section through theworking parts in operation; Fig. 5, a vertical section on the line B, B,of Fig. l; Fig. 6, a vertical section through the bearings of thelower'roll on the line C, C, of Fig. 1; Fig. 7a view from beneath of oneof the plates by means of which the position of the boxes b is adjusted.

In leather splitting machines of that class in which t-he leather passesin between two rolls, the upper or gage roll is held rigidly that it maygage the grain to the thickness required and the under roll being heldup to its work by springs, is allowed to yield slightly as the thicknessof the hide varies. It often happens however that the leather hangs inthe machine, and bags before the knife; in such cases itbecomesnecessary to relieve it, either by reversing the operation of the rolls,or in some other way, considerable delay is thus occasioned, and it isoften difficult to extricate the hide or to drive it through withoutinjuring both the leather and the machine. To remedy this inconvenienceis the object of my present invention which consists in so hanging thelower roll that while it may be allowed to yield as heretofore toaccommodate itself to the varying thickness of the split, it may also bedepressed out of the way whenever it becomes necessary to remove oradjust the hide.

To enable others skilled in the art to understand my invention I willproceed to describe the manner in which I have carried it out.

My machine is of that class in which the leather is fed in upon anelastic feed apron andv is forced or propelled against the edge of theknife by feed rolls.

In the accompanying dra-wings D, is the elastic feed apron for whichLetters Patent were ,granted to me on the 19 of December, 1854. Thejournals a (Fig. 6) of this roll run in .boxes b, which slide inhousings H attached to the sides of the frame work E.

d is a plate suspended from the boxes4 I), by the screws C, which passthrough holes in the plates, and enter the bottom of the boxes; theplates and boxes are separated by springs f, and thus .while the lowerroll is forced up by the expansion of the springs, it can descendindependently of the plates, as the thickness of the leather increases.rlhe distance to which it can ascend being limited by the position ofthe plates which is regulated by the levers I, pivoted to the bracketsK, at z'.

L, is a connecting rodwhich unites the short arm of the lever I, withthe plates CZ. by means of which the position of these plates isadjusted and the throat is adapted to the thickness of the hide to besplit.

M, is the stationary knife which is secured to the cross bar N, attachedto the housing I-I.

O, is the gage roll which revolves in theboxes P, upon the arms Q;t-hese arms vibrate around another shaft, R the boxes S v of which,slide in the standards U, and are gaged by the screws T, to regulate theydistance of the roll O from the knife. The

springs g keep the boxes in cont-act with the p screws.

The power which actuates themachine is applied to the cog wheels A2,upon a short shaft projecting from one of the standards V. This wheelengages with the gear B2, upon the shaft of the bite roll C2, whichshaft also carries the pinion D2 which may be caused to rotate with thegear'B2, by means of the clutch F2, operated by the lever G2.

E2 is an intermediate gear that engagesl with the pinion D2, and alsowith the wheel H2, upon the lower feed roll, this latter wheel engageswith a similar wheel I2 upon the shaft of the gage roll O, by whichmeans these rolls are `both driven.

In order to enter the hide promptly between the feed roll, the upperroll O, isy swung out of position as seen in Fig. 3, its cog wheel I2 atthe same time disengaging itself from the gear H2, by which it isdriven; wherever the gage roll is returned to its place, as in the otherfigures its wheel I2 engages with that upon the lower roll and the twoare again revolved together.

Ordinarily the leather is propelled through the machine and against theedge of th-e knife by driving the feed rolls; in such case the wheel D2is clutched with the gear B2, and should the leather bag behind therolls, the operator by placing his hand upon the bite roll (Fig. 4L) candraw that portion of the hide through and cause it again to runstraight. If at any time it becomes necessary to stop the rolls, anddraw the leather through, this may be done by un clutching the wheels D2and B2 and carrying the leather through solely by the bite roll. hen theleather is light and soft it may be drawn through altogether by the biteroll. I am thus enabled in the same machine to draw, and propel at thesame time, or to do either one withoutthe other, according to the natureof the leather to be operated upon.

It often happens that the leather hangs in the machine and stops it, itis then diflicult to start it either one way or the other, or toextricate it without injury from the rolls. In the above describedmachine it is simply vnecessary to depress the lower roll by raising thelevers I, and the difficulty may be instantly removed. It sometimesoccurs when the leather is carried through the machine by the rolls,that the grain does not rise regularly and evenly over the knife, and isin consequence not left of uniform thickness. I have discovered thatthis may be remedied by feeding the upper surface of the leather fasterthan the lower, for this purpose I have made the upper roll of slightlylarger diameter than the lower one. I have found when the upper roll isof about i inch greater diameter thanthe lower one with the thickness ofthe apron added, that the evil is entirely remedied.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is-So hanging and arranging the lower roll as described, by means of thelevers I, connecting rods L and plates cl or their equivalents, that itmay be depressed when required for the purpose of relieving andadjusting the hide as set forth.

ELISHA PRATT.

lllitnesses JosHUA PHJPPEN, WV. C. ENDIcoTT.

